Furthermore, consider the difference in building a startup and building a typical brick and mortar business. Think of how simple the thought was to create a social network where users choose friends to create a distinct social circle. Or Drew Houston allegedly conceiving of Dropbox by repeatedly forgetting his USB drive in college. Very many SV startups build themselves off of some eureka moment that, being based on the internet, requires minimal investment, effort, connections, and reputation to establish early stage. Then, as long as it is a good idea, investment and employees flood in. Compare this to the enormous barriers of entry extant in a traditional brick and mortar with the bank loans and industry connections and disparate business resources, and combined with a barely-out-of-college aged potential CEO with or without good ideas. You get two entirely different standards of discrimination. It almost seems sometimes like SV considers bad ideas as a normal state of affairs, as a "learning experience" to future brilliance. Fail to succeed? Most successful startup founders hit it right on their debut--- why? Because they have a mentality of, "Should I do this?", and not merely, "Can I do this?".
I'm not saying low barriers to entry are necessarily a bad thing. It just seems like either there are one, a lot of fools with grand visions or two, ulterior-minded entrepreneurs looking to pad their resume or impress their friends with some social networking rip-off that only cost them $10k to build. Bustling, metropolitan environments often offer that billion dollar jackpot or Hollywood walk of fame, but require in turn a more demanding degree of discrimination to tell that shiny metal from mere fool's gold.
Instagram for pets, Pinterest for gardeners, what's next?
I think this is not the right reason.. you need a lot of emotional background to support you when things get ugly
entrepreneur are masochists, they have fun doing it.. this billionaire wannabe with the silly idea, won't stand still
And sometimes I feel like the SF filter bubble is harmful. There are niche markets around the world called "cities not named San Francisco". I know that where I live, there are no good quality websites for local services or other keen initiatives. Many of the SF "Failures" could easily kickstart themselves in a town like mine, I think.
Ultimately, though, surviving Silicon Valley comes down to one simple rule: don't build stupid shit. Work on a business, get revenues from the start, and don't fall into the trap of trying to build an Instagram.
Frankly, most of the stuff everybody here is working on is idiotic. The business models & grand vision plans people come up are ridiculous. With a little more care for building things that are actually useful and that people will pay for, we'd have much less "blew my life savings trying to make a social network for pets and am now homeless and girlfriend-less" stories.